Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on January 2014

STRANGE DAYS

• A Tokyo police officer who went AWOL during the middle of his shift was found three days later in Tochigi “wearing a ski mask and [carrying] three knives.”
• Policymakers at the Bank of Japan say they are “very interested” in the virtual currency Bitcoin.
• One day before he resigned as governor of Tokyo last month, Naoki Inose published a book called The Power to Win Through.
• It was reported that researchers at Japanese universities are trying to develop personal authentication technologies based on “unconscious behaviors that are hard to imitate.”

CLASS ACTS

• According to the education ministry, a record-high 119 schoolteachers were fired for sex-related offenses last fiscal year.
• Meanwhile, the number of teachers taking leave for mental health problems was the lowest in five years.
• The ministry also found that the average height of Japanese children is exactly the same as it was 10 years ago, while the average weight is slightly lower.
• It was announced that Yuko Tanaka, an academic researcher specializing in the Edo period at Hosei University, will become the first woman in history to lead one of the so-called Big 6 Tokyo universities.

HERE & THERE

• A survey by the Meiji-Yasuda Seimei life insurance company found that the 10 most common Japanese surnames are Sato, Suzuki, Takahashi, Tanaka, Watanabe, Ito, Nakamura, Kobayashi, Yamamoto and Kato.
• Starting next summer, municipal welfare officials around Japan will be authorized to ask relatives of people applying for benefits to explain why the family can’t support the applicant.
• For the first time since recordkeeping began in 1997, the estimated number of Japanese people with diabetes has declined.
• Headline of the Week: “Fukuoka Man Ordered to Pay Over ¥1 Million for Peeing in Elevator… Every Day for Half a Year” (via Japan Today)

GOING NATIVE

• A survey by the Cabinet Office found that 95 percent of Japanese people are “aware” of the existence of the Ainu indigenous group.
• And 66 percent recognize that the group “has a unique and traditional culture.”
• Yet only 48 percent realize that Ainu people “live across Japan, including the Tokyo metropolitan area, not only in Hokkaido.”
• Officials at the sports ministry plan to spend ¥470 million in fiscal 2014 to develop artificial legs and wheelchairs for athletes taking part in the 2020 Paralympic Games.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

• Authorities at Kirin announced plans to brew Ichiban Shibori beer in Brazil.
• Meanwhile, Nissin food company is looking to take advantage of “brisk sales” in China by establishing processing facilities for instant noodles in the country.
• And Mitsubishi has set up a joint venture in China to sell “high-end seafood products imported from Japan, Chile and Thailand.”
• Officials at the education ministry have come up with plan to double the number of foreign students in Japan by 2020.

Compiled from reports by AP, Japan Today, The Japan Times, Jiji, The Tokyo Reporter, The Mainichi, The Japan News, AFP, Reuters and Kyodo